Flux
by earthrise
Summary: What if Gordon tried something obvious no one had thought of before? A two part humor piece.
1. Chapter 1

AN: This is a bit of a humor piece in Gordon's POV. What if Gordon tried something that was so obvious no one had tried it before? Don't own half life. Some quotes pulled from game. Part 1 of 2

As happens often at the resistance, I came upon two Vortigaunts communicating telepathically. Flux-shifting was what they called it. These two were particularly deep in conversation, as usually any Vortigaunt I came upon would say something to me.

The concept of flux-shifting was something very few humans were comfortable with, but I was fine with it. It was just how they naturally communicated, just like humans speak and write. So, having been around them for a few weeks, I decided I would try thinking at them. It wouldn't do anything, I was sure of that, but it would be kind of funny to act like I was participating in their conversation.

_Hello_, I thought, screwing up my brow in concentration.

To my great surprise, both Vortigaunts immediately turned in my direction, looking very surprised.

"The Freeman attempts to commune by flux-shifting! The Freeman must try again!" said one of them.

"We will assist the Freeman! We shall share the vortessance!" said the other, as they both began to hum.

_Hello?_

_The Freeman has flux-shifted successfully with our help._

_What makes this different than just thinking at you though?_

_We shall show you._

I then felt a prodding at the back of my mind, and a sensation of something loosening, like a muscle that had never been used.

_The Freeman must try on his own now._

The Vortigaunts ceased their humming and looked at me expectantly.

_Can you hear me now?_

"Yesss! The Freeman is successful. The Freeman must come to a celebration. We shall roast the finest headcrab for you."

As much as the idea of a celebration appealed to me, roast headcrab did not. As one resistance member put it "they may be called headcrabs, but they sure don't taste like crab,".

Unfortunately for me the Vortigaunts seemed to have anticipated my reluctance and had come up a way to coerce me into coming.

"And we shall invite the Alyx as well."

There was no way I could not come now. I was smitten with her from the moment I first saw her.

_You're doing this on purpose_ I thought irritatedly at them.

_We do not know of what you speak_

I entertained this thought as plausible for a few seconds until Alyx chose this moment to walk in the room. The Vortigaunts quickly and efficiently disabused me of the notion that they were innocent when one spoke up.

"The Alyx must come to a celebration."

"What? A celebration! What for?" Alyx inquired.

I wanted to crawl inside a supply crate and die of embarrassment here.

_You are evil, you know that righ_t I fluxed at them.

_We do not know of what you speak_

Yeah, right. I had a feeling that they would be saying that line a lot before the night was over.

"The Freeman has learned how to flux-shift. We shall all share the vortessance in celebration. We will be in the outer supply cave at sunset"

"Okay. See you then Gordon! I've got to get this reprogrammed first, but that shouldn't make me late."

Alyx flashed me a million watt smile, waved and left. Had I ever spoken to anyone but Vortigaunts since Black Mesa? It was strange- I had slaughtered so many of them, and yet here they were having a celebration for me.

"You have brought us grief and jubilation beyond measure" said one.

"Our life is worthless unless spent on freedom. You have freed us all." said the other.

_Come to the celebration, Free Man. The Alyx will be there._

The Vortigaunts had given me a lot to think about.


	2. Chapter 2

AN: Second part, I know it's been a long time, sorry!

Part 2 of 2: Celebration

The vortigaunts had a conspiracy against me, I was sure of it. "_We do not know of what you speak_" indeed.

There I was, cornered by Dr. Eli Vance in a small storage area that served as yet another makeshift lab and reading room. I was concealed well enough before he came in that he had to have had help in finding me, and the only ones who could have told him where I was were my two flux-shifting friends.

My stomach felt like it was playing host to some nasty form of xenofauna.

Eli looked at me and rubbed his bearded chin.

"Gordon, I know we've never asked about this before, and well, we've all just assumed it. So I'm just going to ask you son, did you age between Black Mesa and City 17?"

I rubbed the barnacle tongue scars around my neck, and shook my head no.

Eli nodded. "I thought as much. I'm going to ask you another hard question, Gordon. Are you interested in having a relationship with my daughter?"

"Yes," croaked out a voice I barely recognized as my own. I closed my eyes and cringed, waiting for the inevitable assault. I couldn't even in good conscience defend myself.

I waited some more. Nothing happened. I slowly opened my eyes to see that...

Eli Vance was grinning like a maniac. He held out a hand, which I grasped, and gave me a firm one armed hug with the other.

"You have my blessing." With that he slowly made his way out of the room.

A few seconds later, he poked his head back in.

"Oh, and Gordon- Izzy was perhaps a bit too emphatic on the necessity of increasing the population immediately,". Eli's grin lit up again as my face flushed red, before his head disappeared once more.

As the color in my face returned to a somewhat more normal shade, I went from shock to relief. I had always been rather conservative in my views about relationships, and Eli's approval helped provide some clarity I had been lacking since I was shoved 20 years forward.

I spent the few hours before the celebration working on some of the temporal models that I was developing based on my experiences. I see a potential for an inertialess drive with them. The only problem was that while this allowed for faster than light speeds, a collision with anything, even an errant hydrogen atom would probably prove to be a bad thing.

Ah well.

Fortunately for me, I looked at the clock before attempting to calculate the result of such a collision.

I needed to get dressed for the party. My expression quickly changed to a frown as I realized that my Hazard Suit was the only clothing I had aside from my monogrammed Black Mesa boxers.

I supposed I could borrow something, but I didn't really want to bother anyone.

Besides, being prepared was a good thing. As such, I grabbed my crowbar, but left my other weapons behind.

I walked out of the back entrance toward the supply cave, noting that the sun was very low on the horizon.

Sitting next to the cave entrance, head propped up on hands, was Alyx, with her gleaming chromed ratchet and socket set looped into her belt.

She looked at me and smiled, as I smiled back.

A few seconds later, one vortiguant ushered me inside as the other did the same with Alyx. There was a fire pit with crates set around it like benches, and a headcrab slowly roasting over it.

_We understand that you humans will sometimes dance. So we have acquired a dancing light. We will provide the music._

_Okay._

What did they mean by a dancing light anyway? My question was quickly answered as the vortiguants began to hum, and a very battered disco ball began to turn.

I set my crowbar aside, and held out my hand to Alyx. We danced to the song of the vortigaunts, and I felt at peace for the first time since the resonance cascade.


End file.
